Panathinaikos - Atletico Madrid

[cyberfish]

Rats! I wrote a very looooooooong post only to lose it after I closed the browser by mistake :angry:

I don't have the stamina to repeat it. Here is the summary:

I am not upset by the lost. Atletico was a much better team. I am happy that despite the difference in quality the game was lost in the details.

We need RB and CB urgently. Mattos had a typical game and that's why he is not playing much. Spyropoulos giving up the ball and defending in the third goal was amateurish. Moon is not good enough to be the de facto starter at RB. Simao had Forlan man to man and Forlan had a monster game. Gilberto played like a DM (backpedling and giving space) some times like in the first goal, but had some excellent one-on-one stops as well. Cisse was meh and Salpi was really good. Leto was excellent.

Ten Cate looked too scared of Atletico with the defensive tactics but maybe there is a reason why after reading Zaet's interview "

[thrylos]

This is the sadest defense I've ever seen PAO field. PAO used to have the best backline in Greece by far for many years

[adonis]

is that the same zaets interview in which he was basically saying mario isnt starting material for PAO as a keeper and we should bring in another keeper?

anyways i noticed simao instructed to mark forlan....this is a bit weird at least in my opinion

atletico seemed to play a clear 4-4-2 with the forlan aguero didimo up front....gilberto and vyntra were the main stoppers and with gilberto marking aguero why was vyntra acting as the libero and not marking forlan?

this move seems as if he had too much respect for atletico....we then lose simao from the middle to cover for the defensive weakness and than mattos has to cover extra ground with katso and kara trying to organise attacks to salpi and cisse

at the same time ten cate fails to use the oaka pitch to his advantage,....iots a pretty long and wide pitch and we leave most of the wings empty (until sapli does a diagonal run towards trhe corner flag).

i would be very much in favour of seeing leto starting always on the left hugging the sideline receiving balls and taking players on and either delivering crosses or shots

and i would like to see either salpi/gabriel/ninis on the other side

this was we can open teams up bc every time we played down the wings it seemed we could find spaces beyond atletico's fullbaks (like the second goal)....

ten cates current system just seems to narrow minded (down the middle) and doesnt encourage any positive creative football (just long balls from def to cisse)....

i think the 4-2-3-1 or just a classic 4-4-2 (varied perhaps as a 4-4-1-1) would of worked well on wed

[Euro2004]

habit of killing us in big games? are you kidding. Euro, your posts get progressively MORE ridiculous. #1, he is definitley not the reason that "killed us" tonight. Horrible defending and team play in the back is what killed us. Also, 1 game. Is not a habit.

Tonight, against Lens? Man, we SUCKED, is why we lost against Lens.

Away at Villareal Galinovic gave us several scares, and despite your shocking analysis of goalkeeping 100% of football pundits I've seen on TV (ITV and Sky Sports) have agreed that Galinovic was poor on the 2nd and third goal yesterday.

As for Lens, 1-1 away with 20 mins to go in the first leg...

go to 0:37 and see the blunder.

go to 0:24 and see Sarriegui's own goal. Yes it was a silly header, but should Galinovic have been beaten at hit near post?

How about the 4-0 defeat away at Olympiakos: go to 1:00

I'm not saying Galinovic isn't a good keeper. But these aren't random games, they are big pressure games. I'm saying that he has a tendency to choke under pressure. Perhaps he needs to see a sports psychologist because the above mistakes aren't reflective of his ability.

As for Mattos, sure he had a bad game. But do remember he was playing Attacking Midfelder, his defensive duties seemed a bit uncertain to begin with.

He provided nothing going forward. His job was as a centre-midfielder, not an attacking midfielder. His passing was pathetic and he had to track Maxi for the first goal but he just watched him as the Argentine ran by. It was an abysmal performance.

Gilberto DID have a good game. The 2nd goal was not his fault for a failed clearance. Did you not notice the Atletico player going completley uncontested down the right flank? Did you not see Bryce Moonopano jogging back, then when the cross came in, sitting and watching instead of going after the loose ball?

Yes I did notice Moon, that's why I said he was also at fault. But just because the winger gets a cross in doesn't mean everyone gives up!! The ball came off the bar and fell to Gilberto, he had time to put his boot through the ball and hoof it away. Instead he tried a dumb header. Then he was very slow to react to block Forlan. Add to that the fact that he was beaten wayyyy too easily for the first goal and you have a player that was a major contributor to conceding 2 goals. Hardly an impressive performance.

As for blaming OAKA its more nonsense, this time I wont adress. You are acting as if the stadium was empty, because there was 1-2 sections missing seats. Some were, thats true. also, sparta prague was 2 weeks ago, practically july. july and august are not the same in athens BTW.

I'm not blaming OAKA, I'm blaming the fans. They were pathetic. However the poor atmosphere was further magnified by the fact that the fans were 10 miles away from the pitch. If that happens at a big PAO match imagine what it would be like in your average Ethniki match.

[cyberfish]

Yes, that's the same interview where Zets mentions Galinovic. http://www.sportdog.gr/new/article.aspx?id=104650

I am not a fan of Zaets but I am in agreement with many of his points:

[Kojak]

I just watched the game yet again...with pause and rewind to see our good parts and xalia parts....i have to admit...

YES moon was abysmal....but what became even clearer was spyropoulo was just as bad.

In fact having just read the articles about how ten cate criticised moon and spyro, with the latter reacting badly (hes out of the team for the ergotelis match). I totally agree with ten cate, they both needed a "you were fkn s%$#!" to wake them up.

Looks like were down to darlas now..... so add left back to the list of required players...cause as long as ten cate is there spyropoulo will be in & out of the team..

in all honesty, ten cate was quoted as saying he would like a spyropoulo for the right as well, which is a compliment for him...and hes loved him from the beginning...so i cant understand why spyro would react like that, just take it shut up and prove him wrong in the next game....

we now not only mediocre players, but mediocre primadonna players...

[NYPAO13]

spyro has been an underachiever here. the last goal we concede,sure i think galino didnt play it well, but prior to that,wasnt it spyro who got his pants pulled down by Aguero? He made a nice pass to Leto on the goal & stopped to stare at his pass. Boy i wish we had Tziolis. He could of played anywhere in that back line i think.

[Akritis_1944]

It's a few days since the dust has settled on the match, and as a very interested neutral I have thw floowing observations.

Firstly, Ten Cate paid Atleti way way way too much respect with his cautious tactics and selections. It was apparent that when PAO played and attacked and tried to play decent possession football they made Atleti's average backline sweat.

This also allowed PAO's poor backline some space as they weren't constantly under pressure.

Secondly, certain players...namely Spyropoulos and Moon were abysmal and had big hands in the 2nd and 3rd goals. Yes, Galinovic should have stopped that Forlan shot...but Maxi Rodriguez or Sabrosa should never have been allowed to get in behind Moon and get a cross in and then from the resulting shot Moon should have sprinted back and been the one to clear the ball...not just jog back like he is in a training match at some park.

For the 3rd goal...Spyropoulos was way way way too pedestrian against a player who many believe will be a start in Aguero. He had 2 seconds of time to dispose of the ball or to quickly turn and lay it back to Galino, but SPyropoulos thought he was in a traning match and thought he can take all the time he wanted.

Anyway...uefa shafted you guys...APOEL or Debreceni or Macabbi Haifa will be playing group stages while you guys play Europa.

Greek football needs to change mentality. There are 2 Madrid teams...the one that wear all white is the real deal....the other team should be attacked!!!

[Clover22]

Good post Akritis but I don't think Real are the real deal since their version of putting together a good team is signing a bunch of "names" or "stars". Also Ten Cates cautious tactics may be too cautious but to me they're just plain dumb. Last season we had the best midfield we've had in YEARS; as a coach, you're supposed to use that to your advantage. Instead he goes defensive apparently thinking we can't challenge the team we're playing.